Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2006 / Refer to document

Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2010

Thesis (MPA) -- University of Limpopo, 2011 / The study explores the role of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in promoting public awareness activities at the Fetakgomo Local Municipality. The study reveals that lack of awareness about the activities of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature has been identified. The study critically analyzed method and models of public participation and the role of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in terms promoting public awareness activities. The findings of the study will assist the Legislature with interventions that are necessary for the improvement of public awareness activities. The study concluded that the Limpopo Provincial Legislature had not created an enabling environment for meaningful community participation, and had consequently limited the impact of community engagement on the Legislature activities. As a result, guidelines and recommendations were proposed for public awareness activities.

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / The study has been prompted by the initiative of the Local Government of South Africa in introducing the Integrated Development Plan in local municipalities in 1998 as an interim integrated plan. Local Municipalities in South Africa have to use “integrated development planning” as a method of planning for future developments in their areas. Apartheid planning left South Africa with cities and towns that have racially divided business and residential areas; are badly planned to cater for the poor; have long travelling distances to work and poor access to business and other services; have great differences in levels of service delivery between rich and poor areas; have sprawling informal settlements and spread-out residential areas that make cheap service delivery difficult. Rural areas were left underdeveloped and largely unserviced. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the IDP on service delivery in Emfuleni Local Municipality. The objectives of this study were: to evaluate the effectiveness of the IDP on service delivery and its implementation; to assess the capacity of the municipality to meet the IDP objectives and targets; to investigate the perceptions of the Emfuleni Local Municipality ward and Proportional Representative (PR) Councillors on their mandate and service delivery; and to identify and recommend strategies to enhance the effectiveness of the IDP on service delivery. The study was qualitative in design and collected data using interviews. The study found out that the public participation process, the Integrated Development Plan, service delivery protests and state of service delivery in Emfuleni has clearly shown that the Emfuleni Integrated Development Plan does not have significant impact on service delivery. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made: that there should an alignment of projects with community needs, establishment of a monitoring and evaluation unit, strengthen the intergovernmental relations system and regular feedback, communication and interaction with communities. These systems and structures will ensure that there is regular and coherent participation and involvement of the community as far as possible.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The research study attempts to understand levels of service delivery facing Lenyenye Township falling under the jurisdiction of Greater Tzaneen Local Municipal Council. The main focal point of the study is to ascertain the effectiveness of the provision of basic services such as electricity, water and roads by the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality. This study takes into account that there are other townships such as Nkowankowa, Khutjwana and Tickeyline that are also under the jurisdiction of Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality, and therefore, the research made no attempts to compare levels of service in these towns as its main focus is Lenyenye Township. The findings of this case study are by no means a representation of the state of service delivery in the entire Greater Tzaneen Local Municipal area. The study is qualitative in nature as it attempts to understand how residents of Lenyenye Township perceive service delivery in their area. To get to the bottom of this investigation, interviews were conducted to supplement the data that is needed to make a case. The central elements of this study are community participation and financial management. According to White Paper on Local Government (1998), the above elements are the cornerstone of democracy, and that democracy should be visible and practical at grassroots. The study argued that provision of municipal services is also influenced by a high number of legislative frameworks some of which are still at a grappling stage by municipalities, for example; the implementation of White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery (1997). The study also discovered that a local sphere of government interacts with other organs of state, private sectors and non-governmental institutions in programmes and projects meant to advance the provision of municipal service. Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality like any other municipality is experiencing its fair share of the challenges such as financial management, community participation, and skills shortage. The study revealed that Lenyenye Township is experiencing poor service delivery from the municipality.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / Service Delivery in South Africa has been one of the critical concerns of the government lately. The departments have been unable to meet the targets as set in the major policies and strategies such as AsGISA, Millenium Goals of SA and other documents. The provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, housing, health and poverty as a whole were key to those service deliver plans. In spite of many attempts by different spheres of government, to deal with the problem, this proved to be failure. Issues such as poor interpretation of policies, corruption, maladministration of resources, lack of coordination and aligned programmes as well as lack of skills and monitoring by officials were to be dealt with in length in order to curb the problems of service delivery. The department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs came up with measures to speed up the process of delivering quality services to the communities of South Africa. This Turnaround Strategy was introduced in December 2009 and will hopefully deal with such problems. This is testimony to many protests by different residents in South Africa who are frustrated and in need of response by the government promises. This study attempts to outline the problems facing the development of human settlements in South Africa. This reveals that such service delivery problems are not unique and specific to individual settlement but are similar in all respects. Recommendations thereof may be specific and assist in the rapid finalisation of service delivery in Protea South. The contribution to be made by study will ensure that there will be no more protests and that each sector will have a better understanding of the other sectors.

Thesis (MPA) --(University of Limpopo), 2007 / This study had two aims. Firstly, it investigated the existence of the Local Economic Development (LED) strategy, and secondly, the sustainability of such a strategy at the Thembisile municipality in Mpumalanga province. The rationale behind this study was to provide the municipality with possible mechanisms to improve the development and implementation of the LED policy. The concept of Local Economic Development has been studied and debated widely in South Africa. The importance of introducing policies that assist to stimulate economic activities at the local sphere of government has been acknowledged by a number of scholars. The LED policy in South Africa was developed as a way of creating a platform for municipalities to play a role in economy of the municipality and the country. This study focused on how the LED policy has been developed and implemented at the Thembisile municipality. In order to achieve this, various strategies were used to collect data. Firstly, policy documents such as the Mpumalanga Provincial Growth and Development Strategy and the Thembisile Municipality’s LED strategy were studied. Secondly, questionnaires were administered to participants. Interviews were also conducted with members of the LED Committee at the municipality and entrepreneurs. The study mainly used the Evaluation Research methods to analyze the various critical aspects of policy implementation. The results of the study show that there are possible improvements both in the development and implementation of the LED strategy at Thembisile municipality. It is also critical that the element of sustainability enterprises established should be prioritized. Finally, the study provides recommendations for improvement for the municipality.

Payment for services has been a challenge for municipalities for sometime in South Africa. This has caused municipalities to employ a number of strategies to assist in the collection of revenue. The methods of collection that have been used in the past mostly focused on the stick approach where your services would just be cut until you make the payment. Methods like Masakhane tried to explain why ratepayers needed to pay but fell short as the emphasis was on payment for services and not on the obligation for the municipalities to provide quality services as well. Loyalty programmes are used widely by the private sector and are proving worthwhile in getting customers to become loyal. The purpose of this study therefore is to find out the effectiveness of the municipal payment incentive scheme as a loyalty programme in the City of Tshwane- Soshanguve. Relationship building, the researcher found, is an important component in establishing loyalty amongst customers. This study follows the conceptual framework for modelling customer lifetime value and building customer equity. Soshanguve which is a township was chosen as an area of focus. Soshanguve is one of the biggest areas in the City of Tshwane area. The sample had to be representative of such a big population of about 88 000 households. The study used a stratified random sampling method of 375 Soshanguve households. The results attained from Soshanguve can be applied to other townships found in the City of Tshwane as they have similar characteristics. Structured interviews were conducted with 375 respondents who were drawn from ten different wards that are billed by the municipality to represent households. The questionnaire had both open ended and closed ended questions. The data that was collected was analysed using content analysis from the computer and open ended questions were self analysed. Secondary research was done using City of Tshwane documents and its website. The researcher found that municipalities and government departments have not used this kind of a loyalty programme to encourage payment; City of Tshwane is the first in South Africa to employ such a strategy. The study found that respondents believe the City of Tshwane should offer affordable services and improve service delivery as part of improving payment for services. The incentive scheme, although in its early stages was found to be a motivating factor for the majority of the respondents to pay on time because they want to qualify to win and get the cash back rewards and prizes offered by the scheme. The study found that there was a need to use local merchants that can be accessible to a large number of people. The researcher also found that the marketing and visibility for such a scheme was of utmost importance. On the overall the respondents were happy and proud to have such a programme, for them the municipal incentive payment scheme showed a caring side of the municipality for those meeting their obligation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The study revolves around factors influencing the perceptions of service delivery by local municipalities in the Central District Municipality in the North West Province. Service delivery in general, as perceived by communities, has been a serious dilemma for most South African local municipalities. Factors in service delivery, as applicable in service marketing, have been examined through a detailed SERVQUAL research method. The focus areas have been service quality dimensions: • Reliability : the ability to deliver the promised service dependably and accurately; • Responsiveness : willingness to help and provide prompt customer service; • Assurance : knowledge, courtesy and ability of service providers to inspire trust and confidence • Empathy : caring and individualised attention given to clients; and • Tangibles : appearance of physical facilities, equipments, personnel and written materials. All five local municipalities in the Central District were involved in the study, and the main findings indicate that the residents in all the affected municipalities do not have confidence in the local government for service delivery. All five municipalities performed badly on the aspect of reliability and there is negative perception on responsiveness and willingness to provide prompt service by all the municipalities. The municipalities are perceived not to be able to command respect and instil confidence on their residents. The performance on empathy, where individual customised services are expected is poor. It is only on tangibles, where physical facilities are regarded as satisfactory. It is recommended that all municipalities should look inwardly and improve on their capacity on skills, financial management as well as bench-marking with international cities and towns for effective municipal service delivery. Service marketing as a management principle should be implemented immediately to save the current situation of loss of clientele and customer confidence. Other areas of quality improvement to be looked at are Total Quality Management and Work Improvement Team Strategy. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

The aim of this research was to examine whether and to what extent supply chain management (SCM) officials in the Central District Municipality designed and implemented SCM in a manner that encouraged sound financial management and compliance to SCM legislative requirements in local government. The substantive area of research was the Central District Municipality and its five local municipalities. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research designs with semi-structured face-to-face interview questionnaire administered over three months. The sampling population was the Central District Municipality and its local municipalities. The researcher conducted 30 interviews and the research analysis strategy was the grounded theory supported by quantitative presentation of closed ended questions in tables and figures with the use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study revealed that Central District Municipality to a certain extent depicted the practice of some of the elements of SCM. SCM implementation is currently at an infancy stage and these municipalities do not fully comply with national treasury circulars and regulations. The municipalities are faced with problems of lack of knowledge, skills and capacity. The study concludes with the development of proposition that need to be tested on SCM implementation and recommendations on how the central district municipality can improve SCM implementation process. / (M.Com.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006